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Cornwall Catholic schools to close -- UPDATED story

Catholic District School Board of Eastern Ontario trustees vote unanimously on an accommodation plan that will see two schools in Cornwall closed in 2018 and 2019, on Tuesday May 2, 2017 in Kemptville, Ont.

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Trustees of the Catholic District School Board of Eastern Ontario voted unanimously on Tuesday evening to close and consolidate two schools in Cornwall.

The vote was the result of a months-long accommodation review conducted by the school board with the help of consultants and public feedback.

The final decision made Tuesday means that Immaculate Conception School will close at the end of the 2018 school year and its students will be split between St. Peter’s and Bishop Macdonell. St. Columban’s School will close a year later, with its students being sent to Sacred Heart, which itself will either be rebuilt or renovated.

Trustees said they believe they have made the right decision for the future of Catholic education in Cornwall. One of the trustees representing the City of Cornwall and Glengarry County, Ronald Eamer, was the one to put forward the final motion to approve the closures.

“After all the work that staff has put into this report, I am confident that the closures over the next two years will see us make better use of our resources and the facilities,” declared Eamer. “The lack of concern on the part of parents over this, I think, actually endorses these measures. All it will mean is a bit more transportation in some cases.”

Everyone at the school board seemed both surprised and pleased by the fact there was no widespread opposition to the closure of the schools during the accommodation review process. Opportunities at multiple public meetings were given to allow people to bring forward delegations arguing against the plans, but no one ever did.

This is in stark contrast to the outrage and opposition the Upper Canada District School Board faced during its own accommodation review which led to a decision to close Rothwell-Osnabruck Secondary School in June and North Stormont Public School at a later date.

Even Jack Ammendolia from the consulting firm Waston and Associates Economists Ltd., which assisted the school board during the accommodation reviews, marvelled at the community’s openness to change.

“I do a lot of these accommodation review processes, and typically you do hear from the public,” he said. “School closures are obviously a very emotional and important issue. And I think it is a testament to this board that we didn’t hear any delegations.”

The decision was made in response to a dramatic fall in enrolment that saw some Catholic schools in Cornwall being filled to only 60 per cent capacity. The fall in enrolment was itself caused by the decline of birthrates in Cornwall during the early 2000s, which has now resulted in fewer students.

Aside from the closures of Immaculate Conception and Columban’s, the decision made on Tuesday will also see St. Joseph’s Catholic Secondary School change to a Grade 7 to 12 school, which may require the building to be expanded.

St. Anne and Bishop Macdonell will become dual-track in September of 2019, which means they will have both English and French immersion students.

All remaining Kindergarten to Grade 8 schools will be scaled back to Grade 6 beginning in September of 2019. A new building or an expansion to St. Matthew’s Catholic Secondary School will be required to allow all the Grade 7 and 8 students be moved there.

With the plan now approved, director of education Bill Gartland said the administration must now get to work implementing it. The first step in the process will be the creation of a new capital plan the school board can take to the Ministry of Education.

“We’ll be able to say we have been through the process, we’ve consulted with the public, these are the recommendations the board has past, and these are funds we are going to need if we’re to build addition like the one at St. Joseph’s or to buy land for a new Sacred Heart,” said Gartland.

Applications for funding projects in the capital plan will be made as soon as the provincial government begins accepting a new round of them, likely next spring.